Email marketing plays a big role in the success of most businesses today. And acquiring quality leads can help you get good results from your promotional campaigns.
However, the quality of the leads is not the only factor to determine success. If you want to achieve high ROI in your promotional campaigns, then you should be concerned with two specific email metrics – Email Open Rate and Email CTR (Email Click Through Rate).
Let me explain.
Even if you have quality leads, you won’t achieve your campaign goals if they don’t open your emails.
And even if they do open the emails, unless they click on the link, you don’t get to convert them.
Today you will be taking a closer look at “email CTR” and how you can increase it to generate more revenue.
After reading this article, you will learn
- What is email CTR and why it is important
- How you can improve email click through rates significantly
Eventually, you will know exactly what to do to achieve maximum results from your promotional email campaigns.
So let’s begin.
73% of marketers measure the success of their email campaigns by watching one key number: the Email Click-Through Rate (CTR).
What Is Email Click Through Rate?
Email Click Through Rate (CTR) is basically the percentage of email recipients who clicked on a link in your email, compared to the number of emails delivered.
For example, suppose you’ve sent a special discount offer via email to 10000 customers via email. After the campaign is over, you notice that 9000 emails were delivered, but only 180 people clicked on a link in your email.
To calculate the email CTR, you need to divide the number of emails where links were clicked by the number of delivered emails. And then multiply it with 100.
So as per the example, the result would be [(180/900) x 100%] = 2%.
What does this entail?
Your email CTR reflects upon the quality of your
- Subject line
- Email body
- The copy
The higher your CTR, the better you have managed to prepare your email. If the CTR is low, you should work on improving them.
What Is A Good Email CTR?
You can’t state a certain number to determine a good CTR for every industry. Because what one business deems to be a good CTR may be just an average CTR to another industry.
The number actually varies depending on these factors-
- size of your business,
- target audience,
- and industry
According to ActiveCampaign, a good email click-through rate is anything above 3%, while average email CTR from various industries varies between 1-5%.
When To Choose Email CTR As A Success Metric?
Many nowadays will tell you not to take CTR as a metric and rather go for monitoring Open Rate and email CTOR instead.
However, when you are startup or new into email marketing, then the email CTR would be the better metric to monitor.
Also, if you are willing to run A/B testing with completely different subject lines and email bodies, then the CTR is the only metric that can differentiate between the both.
Eventually, you have to decide which metric aligns with your campaign goals.
How To Improve CTR In Your Email Campaigns?
By now you have a good idea about what email CTR is and probably realize that a low email CTR means low ROI.
So, whenever you notice your email CTR is low, you must try to identify the reason and work on improving it.
Following are some of the ways to improve your email click through rate.
Below are actionable steps you can take to encourage more of those valuable clicks in your emails.
i. Use Good Email Subject Lines
The first step to your email marketing success is to get prospects to open your emails. Hence, you need to make sure your subject line is well-written.
Look at your email open rate and find out if it’s below 25% (or lower than your average open rate). Then you have to work on writing better email subject lines.
~ Here are some great examples of email subject lines.
ii. Use proper email body format
You have seen several companies doing a lot of experiments with various graphics and fancy colors. But they are not always successful. You should remember that your email body should be formatted in a way that makes it easy to grab the attention of the reader.
The email body should be formatted in the following structure:
- Branded Email Banner (we use 700 x 160 in dimension)
- Email copy with the main message
- Call To Action (button or highlighted link)
- Supporting message (such as further actions or product recommendations)
- Footer (with company info, unsubscribe link, and email preference link)
This format keeps the reader focused and gives him an idea of who you are and where to take action.
iii. Make Your Main Email Copy Personalized And Persuasive
You would want to write an email copy that your readers will be comfortable with and is interested to read on till the CTA.
The size of your email will vary depending on your campaign goals, but you should make sure it’s clear
- Who is this email for.
The reader should realize early on if this is something for him. - What your main message is.
If you are nurturing, it should be clear that you are here to share knowledge or value. If it’s a promotional email, focus on the pain point you are solving or the benefit you are promising before making your offer. - Communicate directly with your reader.
Use the terms “you” and “yours” more and less of “me/us” or “I/we.” And avoid statements that makes the reader feel you are talking with multiple people.
Don’t say, “We are running a campaign where everyone gets 50% off!”
Use, “You can now enjoy an exclusive 50% off!”
Overall, the email should make it easy for the reader to understand what he is getting and what action he should be taking.
iv. Make Your CTA Stand Out
A strong CTA is important to ensure your prospect gets that extra push to make a decision.
Plus, it’s important to make sure the CTA is easy to spot at a single glance. So the best practice is to use a contrast coloured button.
~ Learn how to write good email CTAs here.
v. Use Videos or Gifs During Promotions
When running special promotional campaigns such as product launches or summer sale, using gifs (animated images) or videos can be a great option to drive more engagements.
Here is a good example of how Filmsupply used a video email during their Winter promotions:
No , you can’t place a video directly on the email body. Rather, use a placeholder image that has a preview of the video along with a play icon in the center, and link the image to a video (hosted on your website, Youtube, Vimeo, etc.).
This usually helps to increase your CTR significantly if you have a good promotional video prepared.
How To Ensure Hight Performance On Every Email Campaign
While it’s easy to say that you have to improve your email CTR, it’s easier said than done.
The fact is, every email campaign is different. So the same type of email subject lines or email copies may not work on all of them.
In this case, the best option you have is to run A/B testing for your emails.
Create multiple versions and send them equallty to a small chunk of your full email list. Let’s say, you have an email list of 10,000 leads. You may send two versions of emails with different subject lines to 50 leads each, i.e., a total of 100 leads for your experiment. Whichever will return higher CTR, you may decide that as the best one to send to the rest of your leads.
For major campaigns, it’s natural to run A/B tests for each elements of your email, such as multiple subject lines, multiple email copys, different email CTAs, and even unique email body formats. Then the best combination may be sent to the majority of the leads.
But yes, this won’t be feasible if you have small amount of leads (i.e. below 100) as that would mean you have to test with very few number of leads which may not be reliable or efficient.
Author’s Note
As you saw, improving your email CTR is crucial and the ideas shared here are proven tips you should incorporate as soon as possible.
Having a high email CTR will ensure you meet your marketing campaign goals and eventually help you achieve higher ROI, i.e., increased revenue.
Now that you know how to optimize your email CTR, the next step is to learn how you can run targeted email campaigns to boost your ROI to the next level. Here is a guide on how you can plan your next targeted email campaign easily.
